WONDERING: What wildlife lives in urban areas?
Austin recently joined the world’s largest urban wildlife monitoring initiative to help save the country’s urban wildlife. As one of nine cities across the U.S. currently participating in the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), Austin recently launched a cross-city monitoring effort to help people and animals thrive together by gathering and analyzing data on urban biodiversity. Established in 2010 by the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, UWIN ultimately seeks to discover and apply solutions to existing or potential human-wildlife conflicts and inform city planning and wildlife management efforts.
In Austin, the biodiversity monitoring efforts are led by the Wild Basin Creative Research Center at St. Edward’s University, in collaboration with partners at the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and Texas A&M. Four times a year, biologists install wildlife cameras in green spaces across Austin, from highly-developed downtown parks to less-developed preserves outside of the city. The cameras are motion-triggered and snap up digital images as wildlife cross in view of a camera. Beginning in Summer 2017, citizen scientists can help researchers tag photos for data analysis by clicking through photos online and identifying animal species captured on camera.
Quotes from UWIN Partners:
“For the first time, we’re trying to understand what urban animals all around the country have in common. We know forests in the Pacific Northwest and forests in New England are different, but how is Austin different from Denver? Once we know what all these cities have in common, and what factors influence their local species, we can use that knowledge to start designing wildlife-friendly cities around the world,” said Seth Magle, Ph.D., Lincoln Park Zoo Urban Wildlife Institute (UWI) Director.
“Austin is a city that prides itself on its wildlife-friendliness, abundant green spaces, and access to nature. We're thrilled to partner with UWIN on this project to examine urban wildlife distributions and better understand the factors that make a city truly wildlife-friendly," said Amy Belaire, Ph.D., Research Director at Wild Basin Creative Research Center, St. Edward's University.
“We are excited for this unprecedented research opportunity, and as partners in the Fort Collins, Colo.-area, we look forward to the myriad research discoveries this initiative will bring,” said Christopher J. Schell, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Colorado State University.
“Butler University is excited to participate in the UWIN project to help build a national database on urban wildlife. Scientists have only recently begun to learn of the many unique properties of urban ecosystems and the national UWIN project should go a long way to enhance our understanding. We have really just scratched the surface of what we can potentially learn from this large-scale project,” said Carmen Salsbury, Ph.D., Professor of Biological Science, Butler University.